PROPAGATION OF WHITEBAIT

Hokitika Guardian, 24 June 1929, Page 2

PROPAGATION OF WHITEBAIT

INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS

CARRIED OUT

AUCKLAND, June 21

Some interesting experiments regarding the hatching and growth ot young whitebait are being carried out in the oflice of the Chief Inspector of Fisheries, Mr A. E. Hefford, in Wellington. As a result of these,Mr Hefford has already gained information which throws a new light on the habits of the fish.

It has been found, he says in an Auckland interview, that whitebait eggs will hatch out in salt, fresh and brackish water, although brackish water appears to be the most suitable. Some late spawning fish were taken from the mouth of the Manawatu River, and eggs from the female fish were extracted and placed in three different containers holding salt, fresh and brackish water respectively. They were artificially fertilised on May 18th. and the eggs hatched about three weeks after fertilising. The young fish in the larval stage were artifically fed on water containing minute organ-, isms which was taken from Wellingharbour. They are all thriving, the difference in water not seeming to affect them greatly. The young form has been identified, and the various stages of growth are being watched carefully. Proof that whitebait is hardly a fish lies in the fact that the parent fish taken from the Manawatu River are tnriving in a bucket of water in the Fisheries office.

It is commonly understood that whitebait come from the sea, spending the life from the infant <■ stages In rivers. Whitebait proceed to the mouth of rivers to spawn, and millions of eggs are deposited there. This migration is probably due to the presence of suitable microscopic plant organisms in the sea which are not available in rivers.